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Recently, fellow Forbes contributor Deanna Zandt wrote about co-creating a new business with a partner and made reference to getting "business married." Well, by those standards, I'm a business polygamist. I've been toiling at several projects lately and the most difficult aspect of each has been finding collaborators with whom to work. Finding the right fit in professional counterparts as an adult entrepreneur is a lot more complicated than the days when your sixth-grade teacher would announce that you could work in partners for this project and you'd rest easy in the knowledge that you and your BFF Katie would pair up just like every other project before. Here's what I've learned about the process of collaboration and how to pick your best-fit business partner:

Who you want to work with is not necessarily who you should work with

Some people are just fun to be around. Their minds work in interesting ways. They're enthusiastic, they're idea-focused and they love to think big. And, in many cases, these same creative types make terrific party guests, but lousy collaborators. What you want in a collaborator is someone who fills the gaps in your skills, experience and vision. If you and your partner-in-crime are both big picture types, who's going to focus on the mundane but necessary details (budgeting, to-do lists, logistics) that any project needs to succeed? Sure, you'll have a great time pumping each other up with world domination plans, but you'll ultimately be left wondering why these plans never make it off the sodden cocktail napkin and into fruition. Understand where your strengths and interests lie (and where they don't) and seek out individuals who bring complementary but not overlapping qualities to the table. Have fun discussing your business plans with birds of a feather, just don't rely on them to help you execute.

Look for your level

With one recent project, I went through three potential collaborators before finding a perfect fit with the fourth. The first never bothered to respond to my initial overture, the second was starting a new job and swamped with other projects and the third made me run the gauntlet past her PR person and wanted me to sign an exclusivity agreement before she'd talk shop with me. What did the fourth choices have that the others didn't? They were at the same stage of their entrepreneurial 'journey' (forgive me for sounding like a contestant on The Bachelor), had already been active on projects in the same field and were equally hungry for success, which all translated into an immediate understanding of the idea I was pitching and its potential and a willingness to put in the work in order to bring it to life and the skills to do so. If you're partnering with someone with vastly more or less business experience than you and a different appetite for success, you run the risk of problems. If you're a fledgling entrepreneur who needs to sell or you'll starve, you want to work with someone who is equally motivated to bring cash in the door and is willing to exert the effort to do so. A comfortably established mid-career business owner with a solid client base might make an excellent mentor, but may lack the fire in the belly and the willingness to assume risk that's required to be a great co-creator of something new and untested.

Save room for co-creation

Ask yourself why you need a collaborator and what role you see this person playing. If you simply need someone to handle the straightforward implementation aspects of your fully-fleshed out idea or to take the logistical details off your plate while you focus on the fun stuff, you don't need a partner, you need a personal assistant. If you want someone to be equally invested in the prospect that you're presenting them with, you need to leave room for them to put their stamp on it. How invested in a project can you be if you've had no say in shaping it? Before you go shopping for a business better half, you want to have an idea that's formed beyond a collection of adjectives scrawled on the back of a Target receipt, but you don't want a project plan so detailed that there's no room for the iterative creative process that collaboration is meant to be about in the first place. You need to be willing to cede a little control in order to find your best-fit collaborator.